Swing Set: Cruising Full Time

08/05/13

It never fails. Murphy’s Law is supreme when you live on a boat. We had planned to leave today and head back up the Exuma island chain, but yesterday, on Sunday morning, I discovered that the blowers for our engine room have both failed. Of course, the one or two places that may have blowers in stock are closed on Sundays.
Get ‘em early on Monday and be on our way? No. Today is Emancipation Day here in the Bahamas, and it’s a national holiday. Everyone is closed. Everyone except Chat ‘N’ Chill.
After spending the whole weekend anchored just off the beach at Chat ‘N’ Chill, we motored back over to our favorite anchorage just off of Hamburger Beach a week ago. We didn’t do much all week except visit the grocery store and the...

07/31/13

Swing Set Laying In Elizabeth Harbour From Stocking Island, Across From Georgetown, Great Exuma
As we go steaming into the second quarter of our second year as full-time cruisers, I thought I’d forgo the philosophy of my last post and focus on the nuts and bolts of our liveaboard existence and pass judgement of some of the operating and equipment systems on Swing Set, and what I think are essential, or perhaps, not so essential, items that are good to have on a boat if you embark on an endeavor similar to ours.
In no particular order, more likely as they come to mind:
The Air-X wind generators are getting a thumbs up. Certainly, if coastal cruising will be a large part of your cruising ground, where ocean breezes abound, a wind generator or...

07/30/13

We meet lots of people on our travels, and sometimes we wonder if we can develop a friendship with them or not. We have met some of the same people multiple times along the way, but so far, we’ve just enjoyed their company, or not, while we were with them, and let it go at that, with no further expectations.
Take the woman we met at the library yesterday, Karen. Karen volunteers at the library on Mondays. She and her husband, Clive, have lived in Georgetown for 27 years. They came here when things were much simpler, and cheaper, before the big resorts came in and raised prices, and each little chicken shack restaurant raised them in kind, wanting to cash in on the quick buck, but making things difficult for the locals. Karen also blames the “outsiders” for...

07/29/13

We’re settling into life here in Elizabeth Harbour. Although there are very few cruisers here at the moment, there are enough of them and other visitors to make things at least a little interesting.
Hundreds of boats are here in the winter, we hear, because the weather is warm, but we have found adversely, that many of the home owners and regular cruisers come here in the summer, too, because the temperatures are milder than in other parts of the southern U.S. We have been enjoying temperatures in the high 70s at night and the low 80s during the day. A nice combination.
Yes, summer is hurricane season. We are reminded of that fact occasionally, the latest being Topical Depression Dorian, which is currently fizzling out, if not diminishing altogether.
Once we...

07/22/13

We cooked our Almaco Jack last Friday night, deep fried in Andy's Seasoning, and served it up with macaroni and cheese and a side salad. The meat of the fish tasted like tuna, but had a lighter color. The few bones were easily picked out, and we had enough from the fish for two meals. I'd call it a success, but don't want to add up what it really cost to catch and eat the thing. Livin' off da fat of da land!
My blog posts look different, and there aren't pictures. There is a good reason. Last month, I used up our monthly data transfer allowance of 800 megabytes in less than five days. This prevented us from using our desktop computer for some very important personal business that we had to address with one of our insurance companies. I'm not going to let...